What Tucker Carlsons departure could mean for the future of Fox and the GOP

Geoff Bennett:

FOX says it will rely on a rotation of interim hosts until it names a permanent replacement.

Carlson's departure from FOX News raises many questions about the right-wing network's future.

We're joined now by Brian Stelter, a special correspondent for "Vanity Fair" and the author of "Hoax: Donald Trump, FOX News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth." He's writing a new book about FOX set to be released later this year.

Brian, thanks so much for being with us.

And, Tucker Carlson, as you will know, he gave no indication at the end of his show on Friday that he'd be leaving, and the network was running promos for his show today.

Have you, through your reporting, been able to determine the exact cause of this departure?

Brian Stelter, "Vanity Fair": Well, he did have no idea this was coming. He thought he'd be back at work today. So did his top producer. His top producer was also terminated today.

My sense is, is that it is related to the Dominion lawsuit in the following way. For all the messages that were emerging publicly, like Tucker Carlson calling Trump a demonic force and a destroyer, there's so much more that Dominion and FOX was able to read from Carlson's phone privately that was never seen in public. It was redacted.

And there's actually hundreds and hundreds of pages of redactions that's part of the public record with the court. So, whatever Carlson was saying privately, whenever he was texting that's been redacted by FOX, that's probably what led to his ouster.

Now, there's also a pending lawsuit from a former FOX producer who's accused Tucker Carlson of having a misogynistic, sexist workplace. Put all that together, and there was ample reason to remove him from his show.

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